The Battery

by Schlesinger, Henry

• ISBN13: 9780061442940
• ISBN10: 0061442941
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-04-12
• Publisher: Perennial

Summary

An eye-opening history of the technology that harnessed electricity and powered the greatest scientific and technological advances of our time. What begin as a long-running dispute in biology, involving a dead frog's twitching leg, a scalpel, and a metal plate, would become an invention that transformed the history of the world: the battery. Science journalist Henry Schlesinger traces the history of this essential power source and demonstrates its impact on our lives, from Alessandro Volta's first copper-and-zinc model in 1800 to twenty-first-century technological breakthroughs. Schlesinger introduces the charlatans and geniuses, the paupers and magnates, who were attracted to the power of the battery.

Author Biography

Henry Schlesinger is a journalist and author specializing in science and emerging technologies. He is the coauthor of Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs, from Communism to Al-Qaeda, and lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Introduction History in Real Time	p. vii
A World without Science	p. 1
The Death of Superstition	p. 10
The Tale of the Frog	p. 39
Science, Showmanship, and the Voltaic Pile	p. 51
Not a Gentleman of Science	p. 69
What Hath God Wrought?	p. 97
Finally, Something Useful	p. 131
Power and Light	p. 141
Genius by Design	p. 169
Victorian Age of Discovery	p. 176
Without Wires	p. 184
Mass-Marketing Miracles	p. 198
What Will They Think of Next?	p. 213
Distance Dies in the Parlor	p. 217
The Endless Frontier	p. 225
See It! Hear It! Get It!	p. 251
Smaller and Smaller	p. 262
Always On	p. 270
Lab Reports	p. 274
Epilogue Bring on the Future	p. 279
Appendix Those Troublesome Baghdad Batteries	p. 283
Selected Bibliography	p. 289
Index	p. 297
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